Similarities Between 1984 And Animal Farm

Two Terrifying Tales: Comparing Animal Farm and 1984 Imagine this. In a magical world, you can pay an author a sum of money, and be transported into the realm of one of his or her books. How wonderful would that be? However, I imagine that if you thought long enough, there would certainly be some books that you might not want to be transported into. Then there are those books that no one would ever, in a thousand years, want to be personally involved in, even for a second. In such a world, I imagine George Orwell would be pretty poor (at least in money) compared to his fellow writers of glorious fictional worlds, worlds of magic and excitement and wonder. For Mr. Orwell has produced, from his writer’s genius, two of the
Far from talking trees and cheerful children, Mr. Orwell created a country farm reeling at the birth of a dystopia (though it may have been too slow to see it coming), and a dull, post-dystopian world without a single shred of human individuality (though not a world entirely devoid of individual hope). These are the settings of Animal Farm and 1984, two of Mr. Orwell’s greatest books, frightening, mind-bending, warnings of a future that must never come to be. Animal Farm is set on a farm in the English countryside. No time period is given. The story begins with Old Major the boar giving a speech to his fellow animals. In it, he declares, “Man is the only real enemy we (meaning the farm animals) have. Remove Man from the scene and the root cause of hunger and overwork is abolished forever” (Orwell 7). This stirring speech eventually incites the animals to revolt against the farm owner, Mr. Jones, and his men. The animals claim the farm for themselves, renaming it ‘Animal Farm’, and write out the principles of their new philosophy, Animalism, including the statement, “All animals are equal.” This tenant is slowly weakened throughout the book, as Napoleon the pig, leader of the rebellion,
The story instantly introduces us to Winston Smith, a middle-aged Londoner who works in the Records Department of the Party. Billed as a sort of government, and led by the universally revered Big Brother, the Party controls the actions and words of everyone, even punishing those who think thoughts against them (known as Thoughtcrime). Privacy does not exist; nor does any sort of outward individuality. Winston is quickly shown to be a rebel (at least in mind), and the book centers on his life within a society seemingly devoid of joy, friendship, laughter or anything other than the will of the Party. As the story progresses, Winston has a chance meeting with Julia, a fellow Party member and rebel. They begin an affair as a sort of rebellion, since the Party disapproves of real love, attraction and sex, and continue until both are arrested, betrayed by an agent of the dreaded Thought Police. Winston’s journey is traced through the ironically named Ministry of Love (essentially a torture and mind control facility) as various doctors, scientists and agents attempt to “cure” him of his afflictions. Most of his exchanges are with the agent who captured him, a man named O’Brien. Originally, Winston had thought O’Brien was a friend, an enemy of the Party, and a revolutionary just like himself. In